Nell Lewis

After decades of deforestation, suffering ever more flash flooding, drought, erosion and landslides, democratic Costa Rica took the decision in the 1980s to turn the tide. Since then, in one generation, forest cover has more than doubled, from a quarter of the country to half. How did Costa Rica do this? The government offered a subsidy to any landowner willing to establish new tree cover on their land. In the agriculturally productive areas, nothing much changed. It was simply more lucrative to grow food than to allow the forest to reclaim the land. But in agriculturally marginal areas, farmers swapped their cattle for trees, and made a new way of life revolving around wood and other forest products, small-scale market gardening, nature tourism and so on. Parched cattle ranch after cattle ranch has been transformed into lush, vibrant forest teeming with wildlife. In some areas the forest now stretches from horizon to horizon. In these areas flooding and water shortages are no more. There’s a powerful lesson here for all countries. Restoring nature is easy if bad incentives are replaced with good ones. England’s pioneering new Environment Land Management Scheme is another good example. Let’s hope others follow.